Flat Memories
by dragonleas
Summary: Liam Pines has been having nightmares all his life. Usually about a strange golden triangular being that kills him or an intense loneliness in the dark, knowing he needed to be somewhere for someone. Now that he was 12, it looks like things are about to change. Especially when a voice calls out in his dreams one night to shake the statue's hand. Based off Flat Dreams by Pengychan.


**A/N:**

 **Ok, I was planning this as a one-shot, but... it's turning into way longer of a story than I expected, especially with Pengy and journal 3 giving me so many ideas for this.**

 **I can't tell you how this will end. I don't know myself now. I thought to end it at a certain point and leave it to your imagination. Now? Well, only time can tell.**

 **The Cover Image was done by historymortician97 on Tumblr for Flat Dreams originally. I thought it fitted with this story too as you all will find out. Well onto the story!**

 _"Look, now you're startin to get on my-"_

 _"I would have never left any of my books behind if I had known this would happen! This should not have happened!"_

 _"Shut up."_

 _"YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED!"_

 _"I SAID SHUT UP!"_

 _Liam could only watched as the being he knew once as his brother's eye light up, and then all he could feel was pain. The next instant he was surrounded in darkness._

The small dirty blonde haired 12 year old boy screamed as he sprung up into a sitting position in his bed. The covers flung away from his body as he curled up into himself, waiting for one of his parents to appear in the doorway of the familiar attic that made his room. Soon enough, he saw his father standing there in the doorway, his emerald eyes soften at the sight of the frightened boy. He made his way to the bed and sat on the end of it. He knew to wait for the boy to come to him after he had one of his nightmares.

"Another nightmare Liam?" he asked. The boy nodded his head at him, his one sapphire blue eye tearing, the other hidden under the white square eye patch. He held out his arms towards his father who quickly reached out and pulled his son into his arms.

Liam loved cuddling into his father's body. He could feel the muscles in his arms as it wrapped around his body, the calluses on his hands from working around the shack in fixing everything that needed repairing, and the way his soft brunette hair felt when he brushed his left hand through it, slightly revealing the start of a birthmark on his father's forehead. The deformed left hand that held only two fingers and a thumb. His father grabbed his hand and gave it a kiss, like he always did whenever Liam needed emotional support from him. It was his unspoken way of saying everything will be okay. He smiled at his father and slowly closed his eyes, soon finding himself back in the embrace of sleep.

Dipper Pines felt, rather than saw the moment when his son fell back to sleep in his arms. He was glad, the boy usually didn't go back to sleep after having one of his nightmares. The fact that they were increasing as of late were worrying to the now 38 year old man. It's been exactly 25 years since the defeat of his old foe after all, and sometimes Liam would cry out the name Bill before waking from his slumbers. He was just lucky his son never exactly remember his nightmares, just the fact they were scary to him.

He picked up the boy and placed him back upon the bed and covered him up under the blue pinetree blanket Mabel made for him last time she had visited Gravity Falls. She was too busy enjoying life traveling as a fashion designer with her life partner Pacifica. As Dipper moved away from the bed, he noticed Liam must have knocked his crutches on the floor. He picked them up and placed them back next to the end table so he could easily grab them the next morning. He takes another glance back at the bed as he made his way to exit the bedroom, watching as his son took deep breaths in his sleep. He rarely shifted from his position in the night. He still remember the day he was born, a small tiny thing, premature birth. He almost lost his wife as well as his son that day, but both had survived. Though not without cost, like she had said. His hand was deformed, and his legs were crooked. Irregular, the doctors said to them when they first let them see their son. He still remembered what their replies were.

"He is Perfect," Dipper all but growled at the doctors. His wife had a cold hard gaze upon them as well he had noticed that day, but it was something more, something he wouldn't learn till much later.

"He is more Equal than the rest of you," she had said coldly as she held him close. She looked at their son in her arms and smiled warmly at the crying bundle of joy. She nuzzled him with her nose and kissed his left hand. "My sweet William Stanford Pines."

Dipper snapped out of his memories as he noticed he was now back in his own room. It was Stanley's old bedroom, sadly both Stans had passed away some ten years ago when dealing with some abyssal demon in their home state of New Jersey. They defeated the demon and banished him back to its home dimension, but it had cost them their very lives. At least they died the way they wanted to, a smile on their faces and together with a big bang. Dipper and Mabel even kept their promise of making Grunkle Stan's tombstone taller than Great Uncle Ford's. He really missed those two.

"Dripdrop, you alright?" a voice asked in the darkness of the room. He shook his head out of his thoughts again to see his wife sitting up from under the covers, looking at him.

"I'm fine. Liam just had another nightmare, love," he replied. He slid himself back into the bed under the covers, snuggling up against his wife of 14 years. Dipper didn't miss the look of worry that flashed in her hazel eyes. He knew that she seems to know more about what is going on with their son. It just frustrated him that she won't tell him anything about it. He understood why, he knew there would be things she could never share with her husband until the time was right, but it still annoyed him to no end that his own wife could hide such mysteries from him.

"It won't be long now my Alcor," she said, as if reading his mind. Her hand brushed back the bangs that hid his dipper birthmark on his forehead and gave it a kiss. "I'm sorry I have to hide so many things from you. I wish that I didn't have to, but…"

"Mich… Stop being silly. I understand. I love you so much no matter what. You think anything that can happen now can scare me away from you after all we've been through?" Dipper interrupted her when he place a finger on her lips. He then grabbed her face and gently kissed her. "We will get through whatever fate has in store for us next. We are Pines, the greatest Mystery Hunters in Gravity Falls and just maybe the world. Liam will be fine."

"Yeah, I'm sure he will," she said as she nuzzled him with her nose against his cheek. They both laid back down and wrapped themselves into each other's arms. "Liam is smart, just like his father. Thanks PT."

Dipper stared at his wife for the use of his rare nickname. She only used that one when she was fully content and happy. He smiled, pulling her even tighter into his embrace. Closing his eyes to enter a dreamless sleep.

 _For another Pines however it was not to be a dreamless sleep. Yet again he was dreaming, but unlike the last time he was surrounded in white. There was nothing but white in this new dream, and Liam didn't know which way was up or down. He seem to be standing on some kind of ground, but it was hard to tell without some kind of other color to differentiate anything around here. It felt empty, even lonely in this expanse of white. Then all of a sudden a wail of anguish and anger echoed around him. It felt familiar, yet he was sure he had never heard the voice before. The high pitched echoly voice ranted and rage about something he couldn't understand. Liam curled up into a ball on the ground and held his hands over his ears, hoping to drown out the noise, but it was like the voice was in his head._

 ** _Help him._**

 _Liam heard yet another voice, but it was more that he felt the voice than heard it. It felt like it came from inside of him, reaching out from his very soul so to speak. Help him it had said. Help who? Who was in this place that needed help? Liam felt very confuse._

 ** _Find The Cipher Statue. Help him before it's too late._**

 _Liam knew of that statue. His father took him to see it a few times on their trip through the woods. All he ever said about it was that he should never go near it. A strange triangle statue with it's arm held out, as if waiting for someone to grab it. He had always gotten a strange feeling every time he saw the thing, a sadness would overcome him when seeing the great eye of it closed._

 _Suddenly the voice that was ranting stopped and was now crying. It seemed to be calling out to someone. It tugged at his heart, so he took a step forward to try and find the being crying. There was a flash of gold and all he could see was a strange triangular being that matched the form of the statue in the forest._

 _"LIAM?" the being said, it's single eye going wide in strange recognition, before everything faded to black. Just before the young Pines boy woke up he heard the voice inside of him one last time._

 ** _Save our brother._**

Liam woke up to the bright yellow light of the sun shining through the triangular shaped window, blinding him in the eye. Seeing the window from where he was laying, reminded him about the strange dream he had after falling back to sleep in his father's arms last night. It was certainly a weird dream, the empty white space, the voice that seem to be coming from inside of him, and most of all; that golden being he never seen before except as a statue, and yet somehow he felt they knew each other. The being had called out to him by name even. The other thing was the voice saying that somehow that being that was stuck in that place of grief and rage was his brother. Confusion filled the young boy's mind, and yet he felt compelled to figure out the mystery of himself and the strange being of his dream.

"Heya Champ," his father's voice called out to him from the doorway. Liam looked over at his father and smiled at him. He was wearing his trademark hat that his aunt told him that he had been wearing since he was his age. His emerald eyes shone from behind the black rimmed glasses he now wore, twinkling in amusement as he looked at something.

"What are you staring at?" he asked Dipper. The man let out a chuckle as he sat down beside the boy and pointed at the collar of his shirt. He didn't notice, but it was now wet from him apparently chewing on it.

"You remind me so much of myself at your age. I used to do the same thing when I was deep in thought or didn't get enough sleep," he said. Liam blushed at the thought of being like his father. His father, Dipper Pines, was just so amazing. He protected their little town with not only his strength, but his mind as well. It's rare when a child can get to admit his father is an actual hero. His dream hero, the person he wants to grow up to be is his father. And Dipper has always supported him of his dream. One of the favorite sayings in the Pines household was, 'As long as you have heart and the mind to do it, you can do anything. Nothing can truly hold you back, only you can hold yourself back by telling yourself so.'

"What was it like growing up here?" he asked his father in interest. He glanced at the boy, wondering what he meant by the question.

"Well, you know what it's like. Basically like your childhood here in the Falls. Plenty of adventure, friends, and family who will be with you every step of the way," Dipper replied with a smile and a special shine in his eyes. Liam giggled when he noticed this, reached up his hand and pulled down the bill of his cap. His father gave out a loud laugh at the stunt and retaliated by quickly taking his fingers and tickling the boy's stomach. Liam cried out in joy, tears leaking from his eyes as he tried to escape from his father's playful attack. His legs kicked awkwardly from under the covers, weakly trying to find some way to break himself free. Finally, one of his legs got a good hit in his father's side.

Dipper didn't really feel anything from the kick, but he pretended to yell out in surprise and pain anyway and flung himself to the floor.

"Is it just me or did you grow some muscles overnight?"he joked at his son as he looked down from the bed at his father in slight worry. "I'm fine, Liam. Nothing can hurt the Amazing Dipper Pines."

"Nothing except his wife who is wondering why her two boys are roughhousing in bed and not downstairs at the breakfast table. We have a business to run Dipster," a low, but bell-like voice called from the doorway of Liam's room. Liam saw his mother standing there and a huge grin on her face. She wasn't a tall person, actually quite short, but not like a gnome or anything; only around 4'4". Her heterochromatic eyes of hazel and sapphire blue crinkled in amusement at the scene in front of her. Her own short dark blonde hair seem to sparkle as the sunlight hit it with its beam from the window. Liam would hear others say that his mother was rather plain, but to him she was very lovely. He knew his father felt the same way by the look on his face even now. Her face was a tad rounded, like the rest of her body. She seem to be more manly in stature than anything, but her roundness and curves made up for that. No one could ever call his mother skinny, but she does a lot of the heavy lifting around the house. Right now she was wearing her Mrs. Mystery dress that Aunt Mabel made soon after she took over the tours. It was black, but there was rainbow question marks all over the fabric. The ruffles underneath the dress was made of a special rainbow lace as well. Liam noticed she had on the traditional Mystery Fez on her head, though it was a replica of the original. Dipper and Uncle Soos had decided to bury the first one with the man he only vaguely remembered as Grunkle Stan.

"Shelly, we were coming right down," Dipper replied to his wife with that sly smile of his. Help save the townsfolk from a bunch of monsters, and you tend to think you had all the charm in the world. Liam rolled his eye at him, but giggled at the sight.

He slid himself to the end of the bed, letting his legs hang off the edge while he grabbed the clutches to secure the straps to his arms. He jumped off and made his way to the door. Liam then noticed that his father wasn't following him. He was still sitting there, staring, with a strange look on his face, but grinning at the same time.

"You coming old man?" he teased. Dipper just gave a chuckle and got up.

"I'll show you old man," he replied, following his son out the door. Dipper was glad the boy was so happy this morning, because for a second he thought he saw a triangular shaped shadow on the floor behind him. It couldn't be Him. He was gone. Dipper would talk to Shelly later and see what it could mean, but for now the Mystery Shack was open for business and like Grunkle Stan always said, 'there was some rubes that needed to be relieved of their money.'

 _That night Liam dreamt an even stranger dream. Everything was in black and white, and instead of people, everyone was a shape. It was like flashes of scenes appeared in front of him, running through them at a faster pace, yet he understood everything that was going on. At the same time he was confused. Were these memories? And if so, whose?_

 ** _Ours, yours, mine._**

 _Liam turned around at the voice. He remembered it from the dream he had the night before, the one asking to save the being in the white place. He froze at the sight he saw. It was the irregularly shaped triangle from the scenes he just saw, the one also named Liam. The one eyed being stared at him with a sad look in his gaze, the boy didn't know how to react to what the being said to him._

 _"What do you mean?" he asked. The being kept his gaze upon his, it's eye half-lidded as if trying to think of a way to answer the young boy._

 _ **I am you from a past life. From a dimension that was flat, filled with even flatter minds as someone once put it. The memories you see before you were once mine, but are now yours. I'm nothing more than an echo, or better yet a memory in your soul,**_ _the triangle Liam explained. It was a lot for the boy to take in, but for some reason it made sense to him. Like it was the missing pieces of the puzzle he could ever figure out about himself._

 _"I think I understand, but why am I remembering this?" he asked. His other self looked sadden at the question by the way his eye was tearing up. Liam had a sense that the triangle didn't really wanted to answer the question, but knew he had to. He had a feeling it was the reason he had been having those nightmares, which he noticed wasn't in the memories. Those ended when they were 'destroyed' by those strange beings. Again the scalene triangle was deep in thought, but it was always normal for Liam himself to be that way as well. Maybe it was a soul trait?_

 ** _To help him._**

 _"Help who?"_

 ** _You saw him before when you first heard me. My brother, Bill Cipher._**

 _Liam felt like he was hit with a bag of bricks. Now it was starting to make more sense. Why he saw that being, why his past self looked like this. He heard about the demon from his family, how could he not with them being the heroes that defeated him all those years ago. Bill Cipher, his past self was related to that fiend that caused so much turmoil for the Pines family. He was somehow alive, but trapped and now his past self wanted to save him. Then he remembered what was said in his last dream. Find the Cipher Statue. He never realized that the statue had anything to do with the demon. He was never told what Bill looked like after all. All this time he had never put the two together even after hearing the names for so long. Liam was afraid. There was a reason his father always warned him away from the statue. Even Aunt Mabel told him some of the horror stories of Weirdmeggedon._

 _"Why should I even free Bill if he is as evil as I've heard he is?" Liam asked, glaring at his soul echo as the triangle looked at him nervously, "I've heard of the things he had done during Weirdmeggedon. Why does he deserve a second chance?"_

 ** _Why not? No one is perfect. He couldn't help his upbringing and what he was taught along the way. He couldn't help going mad. Well… maybe he could have, but who knows. What's done is done. You can't give up on someone just because of them being bad or a mistake no matter how evil or how big a mistake it was. Especially if it's family._**

 _Liam felt ashamed by his other self. He was right. Everyone, no matter what they did in the past deserve a second chance. No one was perfect. Look at him… One eye, three digits on one hand, and crooked legs. He wasn't the ideal kid, sure, yet… his parents loved him anyway. The whole town loved Liam Pines and his cheerful smile and never give up attitude. Who was he to decide not to give the psychotic demon a chance? If only there was a way to make sure he didn't hurt anyone, or start another Weirdmeggedon, then Bill can have his chance._

 _"You're right… I'm just afraid he might hurt someone. Especially my family since they were responsible for trapping him there," Liam replied at last. His other self seemed to calm down and give him a comforting look as he came closer._

 ** _Then there is only one thing to do._**

 _"What?"_

 _Suddenly everything started fading on Liam and he knew the dream was finally ending. His other self was fading along with the dream._

 ** _This is goodbye, my time is done. Go where you need to go and make a deal. He can't refuse you. Live the life I was denied. Help him find his way. Be careful, trust must be earned, not given. Goodbye me…_**

 _Liam saw the last of his triangular self disappear, turning everything around him to black._


End file.
